Right Here Waiting
by SereneCalamity
Summary: It didn't matter how long it was going to take. Bellamy was going to wait as long as Clarke needed. Bellarke. OneShot.


_Honestly, my love for this couple is ridiculous. I heard this song and this is what was inspired. The song is_ Right Here Waiting _by Richard Marx. It's absolutely gorgeous._

 _Disclaimer : I very unfortunately do not own any of the characters :(_

 _Wherever you go  
_ _Whatever you do  
_ _I will be right here waiting for you  
_ _Whatever it takes  
_ _Or how my heart breaks  
_ _I will be right here waiting for you_

After Clarke Griffin's father was killed, it was like she became a different person.

Which was to be completely expected and wholly understood.

But it was now almost a year and a half later, and Bellamy Blake barely recognized the girl he loved.

That didn't matter, though.

Clarke was always going to be the girl that held his heart.

"Bell?" Someone was jabbing him in the side. He tried to ignore them, groaning and burying his face into his pillow. For a moment, everything went quiet, and he began sinking back into the darkness of sleep, when the jabbing started again. "Bellamy? Come on! Wake up." Bellamy groaned again and he rolled over to look up at his sister, who was staring down at him.

"Shit, Octavia," Bellamy muttered. "What the hell do you want?"

"It's Clarke," she said, running her hand through her hair. "I was out with Lincoln at this party and she was there...Yeah, we brought her back." Bellamy was instantly awake, and he grabbed his phone from the bedside table and looked at the time. It was just after two, and he rolled out of bed, grabbing a pair of sweatpants from the floor and pulled them on, following Octavia Blake down the stairs. Lincoln Whittle was standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking tired, but he forced a smile at Bellamy as he walked past. "She's in the lounge," Octavia said, stopping next to her boyfriend in the doorway. The lights in the lounge were dimmed, but Bellamy could make out a figure on the couch.

"Hey, Clarke," he said softly, walking over to the couch and kneeling down next to the couch. The figure mumbled under her breath but didn't move. Bellamy pursed his lips and tugged on her elbow gently, forcing her to roll over and face him. She opened her eyes and blinked blearily at him. Her once gorgeous, shining blue eyes were clouded and she looked confused as she scanned him over. "Hey, babe," he gave her a sad smile. "You think a bed might be more comfortable?" She didn't verbally reply, but gave a slow nod. "Okay, let's get you up." Bellamy slipped an arm under her back, and the other under her knees, easily lifting up her light body.

"You want some help?" Lincoln asked as Bellamy started out of the room.

"Nah, I'm good, bro," he said, giving the taller man a tight smile as he walked up the stairs. Clarke shifted in his arms as he reached the second story floor and started walking down toward his bedroom. When he kicked open the door with his foot, her eyes blinked open and locked on his face. He reached his bed and set her down, laying her out so that her head was resting on his pillow and her feet were dangling off the edge. She was wearing a pair of purple Vans that he had brought her a couple of months ago, and he couldn't help the smile that crossed his lips as he gently pulled them off. He tucked her under the blanket and knelt at the head of the bed, resting his fingers against his forehead.

"Bellamy?" Clarke croaked out, her lips parting slightly.

"Yeah, babe?" Bellamy replied, his fingers carding through her blonde hair.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, although her breathing was already beginning to even out again, a sign that was slipping back into sleep.

"It's all good, Clarke," he said back to her, even though he knew that she could no longer hear him. He sat there for almost half an hour, running his hands through the silky strands and staring down at her sleeping form. By the time he got up and walked back downstairs, the house was dark and silent again, indicating that Octavia and Lincoln had already gone to bed—not something that he necessarily liked to think about, but was good, because he needed space to think.

In less than four hours, he was going to need to be completely alert and getting ready for his morning shift at Ark Memorial Hospital as an orderly. That wasn't where he wanted to be working, but it was a steady job, a solid forty hours a week, which allowed him to keep the bills for the house paid and Octavia in school. His younger sister also worked a part time job to help with expenses, but as a seventeen year old, he still wanted her to be able to enjoy herself and focus on school. Once she left next year, and headed off to Uni, it would allow him to lower his work hours and put the small amount of savings he had to use, and get himself the Mechanical Engineering Degree he had planned to get the year he had left school. Then he would be able to go to a job that he actually enjoyed and save some proper money.

And then there was him and Clarke.

They weren't...Together, in the most common sense of the word, but they weren't apart either. She had had a crush on him pretty much since her and Octavia had been friends, but it had always been puppy love. And then she had grown up and seemed to loose interest, but after she turned fifteen, Bellamy started to notice her. He had tried not too, because he was three years older than her, and liking a fifteen year old just wasn't right. But Clarke wasn't the common kind of fifteen year old. She was smart, and she was funny in the sarcastic kind of way that he loved, and she was gorgeous. She had kissed him the night of her sixteenth birthday, and almost six months later, they had slept together. It had happened a couple more times but then her father had passed, and he hadn't wanted to push her. But there was no way he could move on, because she had stolen his heart.

This was his life.

He was the legal guardian of his high spirited, eighteen year old sister, who worked awkward hours at a hospital almost an hours drive away and was in love with an emotional eighteen year old wreck.

Bellamy let out a growl as he leaned back into the cushions of his couch and ran his hand over his face.

This was his life.

* * *

Bellamy's whole body felt exhausted when he dragged himself through the front door of his home at five o'clock the next afternoon. He had barely slept after the incident with Clarke, and then after work and University, his eyes were closing every few seconds, begging for rest. The house was empty as he walked through the lounge and dumped his bag on the couch, collapsing into the cushions and leaning his head back, taking in a deep breath.

The lounge was tidy, which meant that Clarke had stuck around for a bit after she had woken up. Neither he or Octavia were good with house work, so whenever things were in their place, he knew that it was the work of their blonde. He chewed down on his lower lip as he surveyed the room, taking in the DVD's that were propped up in alphabetical order on the shelf under the TV, the cushions that were tilted on the diamond angle on the couches and the arm chair, and the glass coffee table that had been wiped down recently. It made his stomach lurch and his heart heavy when she did things like this, things that were normal for her, when she wasn't like that anymore. She was eighteen years old and disappearing down this hole that had been created by the events that life had thrown at her, and Bellamy didn't know what he was supposed to do to drag her out. He tried to be there for her, but he was starting to crumble under the added pressure.

There was a knock at the door and he looked up tiredly.

"Bellamy?" The door opened and Clarke poked her head around.

"Hey, girl," Bellamy gave her a small smile. She came in and shut the door behind her, walking slowly into the room, flexing her fingers at her side. Clarke sat down on the edge of the armchair and looked around the room, fixing her gaze on the ground after a moment. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, I guess," she shrugged. Bellamy blinked a couple of times rapidly, trying to clear his head and wipe away the drowsiness that was hanging over his head.

"What's going on?" He asked her, feeling a little bit more awake now that he could see in Clarke's face that something was up.

"Um," Clarke breathed in sharply through her nose, and rubbed her hand over her face. "Uh, I wanted to talk to you about something." Bellamy nodded encouragingly but didn't say anything, letting her take her time. "You know exams and graduation and shit are coming up soon?" Bellamy nodded again. Well, then it's all over. I'm finished with school."

"That's kind of how it works, Clarke," Bellamy attempted to give her a smirk, but he knew that there was something heavier behind her words, and there was something in her expression that told him he wasn't going to like it.

"I've just been...I've been so caught up in all this...Shit," Clarke pursed her lips for a moment. "I never applied for any colleges, and honestly, I don't know if I'm ready to go next year." He could understand that, although it made him sad. Clarke had always been the most dedicated and goal orientated one out of all of them, and before everything had gone down with her father, she had had this fifteen year plan he had constantly made fun of. It had even detailed children with a husband that she was yet to meet. "But I need to stay with mum," Clarke let out a breath and Bellamy's eyebrows pulled together. "And mum is moving to San Fran."

San Francisco?" Bellamy asked, his eyes wide and his mouth falling open in disbelief. "What, wait? When did this happen?" Clarke was licking her lips nervously.

"She mentioned it a while ago, and she said that it was something that she was thinking about; to get a fresh start, but I really didn't know how serious she was about it," Clarke's words were spilling out, blending together, but Bellamy understood every single one.

No way in hell was he tired now.

He was wide awake, processing every word.

She had never even _mentioned_ this to him about it before.

Before making this decision to move over six hours away.

He stood up from the couch, his whole body tense, running a hand roughly through his curls as he crossed the room to stare out the window.

"...Bellamy? Bellamy?" Clarke was still talking to him and he forced himself to turn his head to look over his shoulder. "It's not like it's going to be forever, and it's not even that far!" He wasn't responding and Clarke chewed down on her lower lip nervously. "Bellamy, don't shut me out..."

"Shut you out, Clarke?" Bellamy let out a bitter chuckle, shaking his head as he turned back to face the window. She took in a deep breath behind him, still sitting on the arm chair, her arms now wrapped around her body as though to comfort herself. "I'm not the one that's been shutting the other one out, Clarke."

"Bellamy, that's not fair—"

"Clarke!" Bellamy spun around, surprised to see that she was now standing and facing him but too upset to process it properly. "Don't talk to me about fair, okay? Because I don't get fair!" He was almost spitting as he stepped in close to her, so close that they were sharing angry puffs of air with each other. "All I care about—in this _entire fucking world_ —is Octavia, and you." She blinked at him, her beautiful, round blue eyes shrouded with tears. "And I'm going to loose you."

"Bellamy..." Clarke's voice was soft, almost broken as she reached out a hand to touch his arm but he tugged away.

"And you know what's worse?" He clenched his hands into fists at his side. "I'm still going to wait for you. I'm still going to want you." Clarke was blinking rapidly now, and he could see that her chest was beginning to rise and fall just that little bit faster. "I'm still going to love you."

"Bell..."

"You do what you need to do, Clarke," Bellamy told her, his anger gone now, and replaced with resignation. "But you needed to know that...That I'm going to be right here, waiting for you." She took another step closer to him, the stone in the pit of her stomach; hoping that he wouldn't step away again, because she knew that if he did, then the tears were going to spill over and she wasn't going to be able to stop. Bellamy didn't move, he let her press her body against his, and then he wrapped his arms around her slim waist.

And it was just something about his touch that always broke her.

Her body was racked with tears and she felt his shirt slowly absorbing them, and then wetting the skin underneath.

"I love you, Clarke," he was whispering into her ear, his voice imperative as his words spilled through her tangled blonde hair. "I love you, okay? I love you."

"I love you too," she finally choked out, pulling away from his shoulder so that she could look up at his face, and his heart broke just a little bit, as he heard the words he had been waiting so long to hear. His lips crashed down on her mouth, which tasted slightly salty from her tears, but still as sweet as he remembered. Clarke responded just as urgently, her fingers digging into his shoulders and pulling him as close as humanly possible to her. Bellamy's arms tightened around her waist, shifting his grip slightly so that he could pick her up without their mouths breaking apart. He carried her easily backward, reaching the couch and turning around, so that he could sit down and she was straddling his lap.

Everything was fast and needy, as she pulled at his clothes and he twisted his fingers into her mess of blonde hair. It was his first time sleeping with her in almost two years—first time sleeping with _anyone_ in almost two years—and she felt like as perfect as she always had. His name falling like a prayer from her mouth had a ridiculous affect on him, and when she clenched around him, biting into the skin of his shoulder to muffle her scream, there was nothing humanly possible that Bellamy could do to stop from following after her.

They laid on the couch for over an hour, Clarke's head resting on his chest as they talked. They had pulled the blanket that was on the back of the couch over the pair of them to keep them warm from the quickly cooling air. It was the most they had talked in eighteen months, and although Bellamy loved every second of it, in a way he hated it as well, because it was just reminding him of what he was going to miss.

When it edged on seven o'clock, it was an executive decision to get up and get dressed, not sure when Octavia was going to walk through the front door.

"Were you serious?" Bellamy asked softly, twining their fingers together as he brought her in close to him, his breath warming her cheeks. Clarke blinked her light eyelashes at him, her pink mouth curved in the tiniest of smiles.

"I love you, Bellamy Blake," she reaffirmed.

* * *

To say that it wasn't hard would be a lie.

From when she had first left, it was almost a seven months before he saw her the first time. The text quite a bit, although neither of them were particularly studious when it came to replying. Her and Octavia skyped occasionally as well, and when Bellamy actually managed to get home at a normal hour, he would catch a glimpse of her.

She was looking good.

Hell, who was he kidding?

She was looking _gorgeous_.

Getting away from Los Angeles and everything that had reminded her of her father and his passing had been good for her, as much as he hated to admit it. And even though he really hadn't been sure about how good it would be for her, alone in a new city without any real purpose and only with Abby Griffin there for company. Abby was an amazing woman and she loved Clarke, but she often let herself get completely wrapped up in work and could go days without noticing that something was wrong with her daughter.

But apparently it was working out well.

Clarke had applied to do a Social Sciences degree and was accepted for the second half of the year. It wasn't originally what she had wanted to, but after spending so much time in the ICU when her father was injured, the idea of becoming a doctor and spending the rest of her life in those walls was too much for her to bear.

She stayed at home and made the trip everyday into Uni. Her and her mother were becoming closer as well; so overall, the move had been a success.

The first time Bellamy saw Clarke wasn't been planned or intended. One day he was driving to work, listening to a stupid CD that Clarke had burned for him a couple of years ago, and the next thing he knew, he was calling into work sick and on his way to Stanford.

He arrived, just after two, and sat in his car outside the main building. He sent off a text, asking when her classes finished for the day, and then waited for her reply. Bellamy didn't even know her address, so if she didn't have her phone on her or if she had no credit, he didn't even know where to go to wait for her. But just around half past two she replied, saying that she was just getting out of class.

There were hundreds of different exits and Bellamy didn't know his way around, so there was no way that he could figure out which one she would be heading to so that he could surprise her. So he rang her.

"Bellamy?" Clarke answered. "Are you okay? Is Octavia okay?" Her voice was going into panic mode and he quickly attempted to dispel that.

"Oh yeah, yeah! No, we're fine," he said. "Um...I'm outside." There was a spell of silence.

"What?" She finally asked.

"I'm outside," he repeated, his stomach dropping at her tone. It didn't sound like she was excited at all and every bad scenario that he had been pushing from his head for the past seven months suddenly flooded back. That Clarke had been caught up in emotion the night she had told him she was leaving and didn't mean what she had said. That Clarke had realized that she needed to put away everything that reminded her of her life back in LA and he was part of that. Or the worst one; Clarke had moved on because she had found someone else.

But then there was a squeal.

"What?!" She asked again.

"I'm outside," he said for a third time, all the scenarios leaving his head and a grin breaking out across his face.

"Okay, what entrance?!" She asked. Bellamy attempted to give her an accurate description of where he was, and obviously it worked, because she told him that she would see him in a couple of minutes. He kept his eyes trained on the entrance, and a moment later, his blonde appeared around the corner.

She was wearing a white singlet and a light blue shirt over the top that was completely unbuttoned, and a tiny pair of denim shorts that showed off her long legs. There was a wide smile on her face as she spotted his car and bounced over, her long hair flying around her face as he got out of the car and started walking toward her. They met in the middle of the road and she jumped into him, her arms wrapping around his neck as his went around her waist and held her tightly against him. She was laughing into the curve of his neck as he spun her around, her legs flying out as he laughed with her. Finally, he put her back down, but didn't let his grip on her waist go, just loosened it.

"I missed you," he told her, his eyes boring into her.

"I missed you more," Clarke shot back, always needing to one up him. Bellamy laughed and rolled his eyes, pulliing her back in close to him so that he could hug her tighter. Clarke sighed against his chest as he breathed in deeply, inhaling her vanilla and peach body wash and trying to memorize it.

"It's been way too long," Bellamy murmured as they parted again, and he lifted his and to brush away a strand of hair that had fallen over her eye.

"How long are you staying?" She asked him.

"Probably only the night. I was meant to work today, but I just...Somehow ended up here," Bellamy shrugged.

"How coincidental," she smirked. "Mum's on night shift tonight."

* * *

That one night got Bellamy through until Christmas. Things were getting better in his life as well. He had managed to get a good savings amount together, that could pay for his first year of his degree and help with the day to day expenses, which would lower the loan he would need to get out. Octavia had managed to pull her grades together the last year before graduation and she had been doing well in her first year of University, studying Interior Design. There had been talk of her moving in with Lincoln, which both excited and worried Bellamy. He had been responsible for her for so long, the idea of someone else being the one to look out for her sort of scared him. But the freedom that it was going to give him? That's what he was looking forward too. And he already had a couple of ideas about what he was going to do, but he had to talk it over with Clarke first.

She was coming back to LA to spend Christmas at the Blake household, and that was when he was going to talk to her.

Lincoln didn't have any family that he was close to, so he was also spending Christmas with them. Clarke arrived Christmas Eve with the car full of food, and was greeted with open arms by the three waiting for her at the house. Bellamy and Clarke stayed up until almost two in the morning, claiming to be getting the food ready, but given how much there was to do in the morning, Octavia believed it was just an excuse. On Christmas day, they ate and drank themselves stupid. In the afternoon, Lincoln and Octavia headed upstairs for some alone time, and left Bellamy and Clarke in the lounge.

"I don't think I've ever eaten this much," Clarke groaned, closing her eyes as she snuggled back into the couch. Bellamy laughed as he picked up her legs and laid them over his thighs, rubbing at her bare feet. They were quiet for a few minutes, the only noise coming from Wizard of Oz, the original movie with Judy Garland. Bellamy glanced over at her, biting down on his lower lip nervously as he picked up the remote and muted the TV. Clarke opened her eyes, looking over at him questioningly. "What's going on?" She asked him softly.

"There's something that I needed to talk to you about," he said, tracing his fingers over the curve of her ankle as he worked himself up to say what he needed to. "In the past year, I've only seen you twice," he began. "And I hate that."

"Bellamy..." Clarke looked worried and Bellamy realized he might be going around this in the wrong way.

"I don't want to stop what we've got going here," he reassured her, squeezing at her leg lightly. "I want—I want there to be more."

"More?" The worried look on her face dissolved and she lifted herself up on her elbows so that she could look at him more directly.

"I applied to Stanford," Bellamy blurted at, pressing his lips back together and holding his breath as he waited for her reply. Clarke's eyes widened and a smile spread across her face as she leaped across the couch to land on top of them.

"Are you serious?!"

"Is that a good 'are you serious'?" Bellamy asked, still looking a little nervous.

"Yes," Clarke sighed as she pressed her lips against his. Bellamy relaxed, resting his hands on her hips as she continued to kiss him, rolling her soft body against his hard one. He could have kept kissing her for days, but then there was a laugh from the doorway, and they both looked up to where Octavia was standing.

"This is gross, just so you both know," she told them.

"Whatever," Bellamy rolled his eyes playfully as Clarke sat up, her cheeks stained red as Lincoln joined Octavia in the doorway.

"I take it you told her that you're going to be stalking her across the country," Octavia smirked at her older brother, who just rolled his eyes again, a very common Blake habit. "You realize you still have to come and visit though, right?" Octavia looked at Clarke, who nodded furiously.

"Now that I've got a car I should be able to come back more," Clarke said, but Octavia knew that the ridiculous smile on her friends face had nothing to do with that.

It was all Bellamy.

* * *

Bellamy never thought that this was how it was going to work out. A couple of years ago, he never actually thought he was going to end up with Clarke, that it was just a passing fling. Then a year and a half ago, it looked like he was going to loose her for good. But now, it had all worked out.

He had helped Octavia move in with Lincoln a couple of days after New Years, and then they packed up a moving van full of his things and he was off to San Francisco. The house that Abby had brought was only a two bedroomed place, but it had a self contained unit out the back, which was where Clarke had been staying, and that was where Bellamy would be moving in. He had been a little nervous about Abby, but she had welcomed him with open arms.

Now it was halfway through the first semester.

On a Sunday afternoon.

The sun was beaming through the opens windows above the king sized bedroom in their bedroom.

Clarke had her iPod going, and was bobbing her head to the music, one of her social policy books on her lap.

Bellamy was laying across the bottom of the bed, one of his thick engineering books open and a pen in his hand.

He never thought that it was going to work out.

But as he looked over at her, and she sent him a wide smile, her eyes sparkling and hand reaching out for him, this was _exactly_ how he wanted it to be.

 _I'd love to hear what you think :)_


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